I'm not saying that an operating system shouldn't have value, but that it is over-valued right now.
It's basically given away for about 1/10th or just free so that it goes with new systems, but if you try to buy a full copy on your own hardware, it's exceedingly expensive.
DVDs were at that same point, but they are finally coming down in price because they are having to compete. Value of fully commercial product versus very crappy copies... but the copies let you get the story and watch the show.
Piracy is a self-defense mechanism against abusive monopolies that are in place now.
Strangely, our government is fostering these abuses because it's a major revenue generator and taxable source. It's making money almost out of nothing.
And face it, the software and entertainment industry have been gouging the public for so long, they think that the situation is normal.
Does anyone else remember $85 movies on VHS? In 1985!
All piracy is doing is forcing the software and entertainment industry to price their products into the affordable range.
$200+ dollars for an operating system? Why? There is something seriously wrong when a peice of easily replicated digital information (ie. ludicrously cheap) costs as much or more than full system hardware.
I've been seeing these $1 DVDs at 7-11 here in Utah. I've actually bought a couple (for my parents, as most of the stuff is old classics that they would probably like to see again.)
Everything above $1 better have a very serious justification for why it is so expensive.
Other than "to make the studios/developers really rich."
If it happens, it won't be using the game engines (at least until they all become super-homonigized) it will be through something like "Second Life" without the crappy economy system and melds the different area for 3D virtual chat.
So, unlikely, but not totally impossible. I can envision a 3D virtual world where you really only have your meta avatar so you can hang out and maybe visit between virtualities.
I'd probably actually do this to visit my WoW friends even though I only play CoH. Probably not very likely though. Lots of hurdles to overcome.
No, this won't happen directly, but I can see game companies allowing you to use your "meta-data" and in-game appearance to be used as a cross-pollinating interface in the future. Meta-tagged icons to be used in a shared 3D virtual interface. Probably at least five years away if you can convince companies to do it.
City of Heroes has a very nice system that basically makes it nearly impossible for you to not be able to team with one other person. And it is so genre relevant that it isn't funny. After all, what would Batman be without his Robin or Batgirl? A sidekick is your friend indeed!;)
If we don't give this out, we are basically saying we don't trust our own allies. And if we *don't* trust them, we have serious issues. Alienating our own allies because we won't treat them fairly and equally just means the United States is inheirently untrustworthy. Haven't our allies earned our trust?
I'm actually impressed that someone up on the hill (yes, it really is on a hill overlooking downtown) got this right without having to go down with their idealogical ship.
While I don't believe in "intelligent" creation as it is layed out, I have no problem that God may have set up our physical universe in such a way that we could have come into sentience.
As an agnostic, nearly athiest, person I'd expect that God is going to work with the "physics" rules that he created.
It would require people to have a lot more personal faith, wouldn't it?
I'm really sick and tired of breathing heavy inversion air every winter, hydro-chloric acid in our acid rain. With those and the coal plant shut down, maybe my chronic breathing problems would lessen. It sure would make it easier to breath when I exercise too!
Nah, people will just blame that I'm fat on being lazy, it's not like there could be other contributing factors.
The problem is that development costs are just out of control. Until you can have games produced for under 500k again (consoles, not continual development like MMOs need) they are continually fighting for a smaller and smaller share of the market.
Hollywood is also having the problem. It's multi-million dollar movies that *require* a certain box office success to work. Some movies will cost more, but things are getting insane.
They are costing themselves out of business. Someone could make a killing making quality budget movies with talented "no-name" actors and making even a reasonable payback.
Back on games, I believe they need to figure out how much they can reasonably expect to pay and then use the best tools and methidology at that price-point. Your graphics won't be the best, but the best graphics works is just too expensive for too little improvement.
But you probably want to use something where things are fairly unique. Most fantasy MMOs try to qualify, but are fairly lacking. Now City of Heroes and Villains, on the other hand have a very unique look to each character. Maybe I should give Jack Emmerett a heads up on this? A thought, anyways.
Solar power based in far orbital farms or in lagrange points would not affect the Earth directly (except for maybe increasing the energy being pumped into it.)
Japan is seriously looking into this, and a space elevator makes this fairly feasible. Lowering manufacturing costs on solar panels helps too.
And of course, it gets us off this single fragile ecosystem and into a larger arena.
At least according to what I've heard. That's because people are living longer and more productively.
Why should a fully functional adult be expected to retire because of an arbitrary time? The original purpose of retirement age was helping support people that could no longer support themselves.
Of course, you could try lowering your settings a bit, as CoV is a bit more graphic intensive. Many new features do make the graphics nicer, but you need a very, very nice video card to take advantage of all of it.
As a matter of fact, they had to disable some features from beta, as it would bog down *any* video card and system.
It's really that good. This is no hokey 1970's drama that turns into an episodic and then silly claptrap.
It just finished it's second season with an incredibly riviting story, some of the best acting I've seen recently and drama so intense you can cut it with a knife.
It's hard hitting enough that it's had warning about mature and violent content... and they were damn right to warn people of it. As a metaphor for today's society and culture, the new Battlestar:Galactica is heads and shoulders above the crowd.
It makes you think.
Your entire species is on the threat of anhilation and you've captured some of the enemy toasters. They are, for all intents and purposes, human. And their military treats their prisoners like that? And you all of a sudden wonder if the Colonials are the bad guys.
Seriously, watch the last episode of this season. It will knock your socks off at ten paces.
Almost the entire run of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman has an alien dealing with weird science, alien plots and such. Mind controlling pheromones, ELO asteroids, alien invasions and all.
It also happened to be a bit comedic and sappy at times!;)
Captain America
This would require a lot of tooling in the ultimates line, but could be doable. Hard to say.
The Avengers
Hmm. This could be quite intersteting. With the cast of Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Vision and others, you have a lot of possibilities.
Nick Fury.
Not holding out much hope here.
Black Panther
I'm not sure what they have planned, but BP can be an intersting character.
Ant Man
Small is cool. Nano-tech terrors!
Dr. Strange
Built for CGI and some very creative computer artist. Hope it works out.
Hawkeye
Hope they bring him back to life first!
Power Pack
This is one I seriously thought they were going to make into a cartoon recently. Marvel's answer to Teen Titans, so to speak. With Snarks. Must have Snarks. So maybe an animated flick like Jimmy Nuetron.
Shang-Chi
Modest budge kung fu flick? Sounds fun.
If you only see the really bad, you aren't seeing the potential. Some of them won't work well, but others have some real potential.
Now if we can only save Iron Man from the father/son plot that I've heard about.
So is this yet another energy ineffecient system..
on
Making Fire From Water
·
· Score: 1
...that actually causes more polution than cleans up? That energy to break H^2O into burnable fuel is probably costing the enviorment more than it would be to just burn fuel.
At least until you have an unlimited source of electricity that isn't causing a lot of polution.
I wonder when we are going to get desperate enough for power that we have to make tons of nuclear power plants.
Of course this is probably the solution to Fermi's Paradox... death by polution.
Actually, there are newer and more feasible fission reactors that are safer and development of safer storage for the wastes (ie. mini-ball reactors.) There is a lot of new stuff about space too, but you are just starting to see it. Space is hard though, so it may take another 50 years to really get someplace. We are starting to get someplace in AI research too. But it's taking understanding linear non-logical thought processes. AI probably will happen, but it probably won't be exactly what you expect. And how about things that were barely dreamed of sixty years ago? Man-machine interfaces (which are crude but real today?) Our understanding of physics is improving too, but that doesn't translate to a fusion-anti-gravity device.
So really, he's saying if we have a die-off in population, our rate of innovation will plummet. But as our population keeps growing, we have more innovation.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not saying that an operating system shouldn't have value, but that it is over-valued right now.
It's basically given away for about 1/10th or just free so that it goes with new systems, but if you try to buy a full copy on your own hardware, it's exceedingly expensive.
DVDs were at that same point, but they are finally coming down in price because they are having to compete. Value of fully commercial product versus very crappy copies... but the copies let you get the story and watch the show.
Piracy is a self-defense mechanism against abusive monopolies that are in place now.
Strangely, our government is fostering these abuses because it's a major revenue generator and taxable source. It's making money almost out of nothing.
And face it, the software and entertainment industry have been gouging the public for so long, they think that the situation is normal.
Does anyone else remember $85 movies on VHS? In 1985!
All piracy is doing is forcing the software and entertainment industry to price their products into the affordable range.
$200+ dollars for an operating system? Why? There is something seriously wrong when a peice of easily replicated digital information (ie. ludicrously cheap) costs as much or more than full system hardware.
I've been seeing these $1 DVDs at 7-11 here in Utah. I've actually bought a couple (for my parents, as most of the stuff is old classics that they would probably like to see again.)
Everything above $1 better have a very serious justification for why it is so expensive.
Other than "to make the studios/developers really rich."
Is it time to set off a few nukes and see if nuclear winter can cool things down?"
Of course, if we actually have to do that, I doubt anyone will remember that. I think I posted it to the Space.sci general news several years ago.
If it happens, it won't be using the game engines (at least until they all become super-homonigized) it will be through something like "Second Life" without the crappy economy system and melds the different area for 3D virtual chat.
So, unlikely, but not totally impossible. I can envision a 3D virtual world where you really only have your meta avatar so you can hang out and maybe visit between virtualities.
I'd probably actually do this to visit my WoW friends even though I only play CoH. Probably not very likely though. Lots of hurdles to overcome.
No, this won't happen directly, but I can see game companies allowing you to use your "meta-data" and in-game appearance to be used as a cross-pollinating interface in the future.
Meta-tagged icons to be used in a shared 3D virtual interface.
Probably at least five years away if you can convince companies to do it.
City of Heroes has a very nice system that basically makes it nearly impossible for you to not be able to team with one other person. ;)
And it is so genre relevant that it isn't funny.
After all, what would Batman be without his Robin or Batgirl? A sidekick is your friend indeed!
If we don't give this out, we are basically saying we don't trust our own allies.
And if we *don't* trust them, we have serious issues. Alienating our own allies because we won't treat them fairly and equally just means the United States is inheirently untrustworthy.
Haven't our allies earned our trust?
I'm actually impressed that someone up on the hill (yes, it really is on a hill overlooking downtown) got this right without having to go down with their idealogical ship.
While I don't believe in "intelligent" creation as it is layed out, I have no problem that God may have set up our physical universe in such a way that we could have come into sentience.
As an agnostic, nearly athiest, person I'd expect that God is going to work with the "physics" rules that he created.
It would require people to have a lot more personal faith, wouldn't it?
I'm really sick and tired of breathing heavy inversion air every winter, hydro-chloric acid in our acid rain. With those and the coal plant shut down, maybe my chronic breathing problems would lessen. It sure would make it easier to breath when I exercise too!
Nah, people will just blame that I'm fat on being lazy, it's not like there could be other contributing factors.
The problem is that development costs are just out of control. Until you can have games produced for under 500k again (consoles, not continual development like MMOs need) they are continually fighting for a smaller and smaller share of the market.
Hollywood is also having the problem. It's multi-million dollar movies that *require* a certain box office success to work. Some movies will cost more, but things are getting insane.
They are costing themselves out of business. Someone could make a killing making quality budget movies with talented "no-name" actors and making even a reasonable payback.
Back on games, I believe they need to figure out how much they can reasonably expect to pay and then use the best tools and methidology at that price-point. Your graphics won't be the best, but the best graphics works is just too expensive for too little improvement.
We aren't paying to upgrade your programing skills, so you are no longer needed.
But you probably want to use something where things are fairly unique. Most fantasy MMOs try to qualify, but are fairly lacking.
Now City of Heroes and Villains, on the other hand have a very unique look to each character. Maybe I should give Jack Emmerett a heads up on this?
A thought, anyways.
Solar power based in far orbital farms or in lagrange points would not affect the Earth directly (except for maybe increasing the energy being pumped into it.)
Japan is seriously looking into this, and a space elevator makes this fairly feasible. Lowering manufacturing costs on solar panels helps too.
And of course, it gets us off this single fragile ecosystem and into a larger arena.
At least according to what I've heard. That's because people are living longer and more productively.
Why should a fully functional adult be expected to retire because of an arbitrary time? The original purpose of retirement age was helping support people that could no longer support themselves.
Of course, you could try lowering your settings a bit, as CoV is a bit more graphic intensive. Many new features do make the graphics nicer, but you need a very, very nice video card to take advantage of all of it.
As a matter of fact, they had to disable some features from beta, as it would bog down *any* video card and system.
No one has been doing this already?
Isn't this elementary?
...not to get. Though it looks more and more like "which DRM do you want" and not any options for no DRM.
It's really that good. This is no hokey 1970's drama that turns into an episodic and then silly claptrap.
It just finished it's second season with an incredibly riviting story, some of the best acting I've seen recently and drama so intense you can cut it with a knife.
It's hard hitting enough that it's had warning about mature and violent content... and they were damn right to warn people of it. As a metaphor for today's society and culture, the new Battlestar:Galactica is heads and shoulders above the crowd.
It makes you think.
Your entire species is on the threat of anhilation and you've captured some of the enemy toasters. They are, for all intents and purposes, human. And their military treats their prisoners like that? And you all of a sudden wonder if the Colonials are the bad guys.
Seriously, watch the last episode of this season. It will knock your socks off at ten paces.
It also happened to be a bit comedic and sappy at times! ;)
Captain America
This would require a lot of tooling in the ultimates line, but could be doable. Hard to say.
The Avengers
Hmm. This could be quite intersteting. With the cast of Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Vision and others, you have a lot of possibilities.
Nick Fury.
Not holding out much hope here.
Black Panther
I'm not sure what they have planned, but BP can be an intersting character.
Ant Man
Small is cool. Nano-tech terrors!
Dr. Strange
Built for CGI and some very creative computer artist. Hope it works out.
Hawkeye
Hope they bring him back to life first!
Power Pack
This is one I seriously thought they were going to make into a cartoon recently. Marvel's answer to Teen Titans, so to speak. With Snarks. Must have Snarks. So maybe an animated flick like Jimmy Nuetron.
Shang-Chi
Modest budge kung fu flick? Sounds fun.
If you only see the really bad, you aren't seeing the potential. Some of them won't work well, but others have some real potential.
Now if we can only save Iron Man from the father/son plot that I've heard about.
At least until you have an unlimited source of electricity that isn't causing a lot of polution.
I wonder when we are going to get desperate enough for power that we have to make tons of nuclear power plants.
Of course this is probably the solution to Fermi's Paradox... death by polution.
Sigh.
Actually, there are newer and more feasible fission reactors that are safer and development of safer storage for the wastes (ie. mini-ball reactors.)
There is a lot of new stuff about space too, but you are just starting to see it. Space is hard though, so it may take another 50 years to really get someplace.
We are starting to get someplace in AI research too. But it's taking understanding linear non-logical thought processes. AI probably will happen, but it probably won't be exactly what you expect.
And how about things that were barely dreamed of sixty years ago? Man-machine interfaces (which are crude but real today?) Our understanding of physics is improving too, but that doesn't translate to a fusion-anti-gravity device.
So really, he's saying if we have a die-off in population, our rate of innovation will plummet. But as our population keeps growing, we have more innovation.
Darn inflation and devaulation. They probably hit the "real" value of 1995 $300 at about $400 today.
Yes, the security was complicated and you had to really dig into it to understand it (I don't anymore, but I did and was about halfway to my CNE.)
Novell had some really good products, but did not take advantage of the Internet boom and come out with a simple/good web server.